Family violence cases rise as Christmas looms

Police have voiced concern over an increase in reported cases of family violence in the lead up to Christmas.

Benalla police responded to nine calls last week, including one incident which led to a man being charged with unlawful assault.

Acting Superintendent Dave Ryan says financial pressure and alcohol abuse are some of the reasons behind the increase.

He says Christmas can be a stressful time but there is no excuse for resorting to violence.

"For people who engage in violence in the home, and I'm talking about the male perpetrators of violence in the home, there's an absolute disrespect for their female partners and a disrespect for their children," he said.

"For me personally this is one of the most significant issues facing our community.

"There's this ... [group] of people who want to commit most often extreme acts of violence on their partners, people they are meant to love and the horrible thing for us is we know that it does increase as it moves in towards the Christmas holiday period, largely due too increased consumption of alcohol."

Dr Mary Casey is the chief executive of the health and education organisation, the Casey Centre, and works in the area of conflict resolution.

She says alcohol consumption and manipulative behaviour are at the heart of many domestic violence situations.

"It's really important to walk away from it because you can't argue with a beer bottle ... they are out of control and they are irrational, so they don't hear anything you are saying," she said.

"So the best thing to do in a heated situation, you need to remove yourself from the situation altogether."

She says people who put up with a violent relationship risk losing the support of friends.

"They can get very compassionate fatigued when they see it happening time and time again and so sometimes people, if they allow it to happen and they stay in it, they lose that support," she said.